New Skills

I am feeling very pleased with myself as I have learned how to do 3 new things with the camera. 

I am a bit of a technophobe and instruction manuals hold all sorts of silent terrors for me, so I have been known to buy gadgets, open them and then never touch them again because the booklet is a bit scary!

This happened with my intervalinator. This is a remote control device that I can use to automatically take photographs at set intervals. This is used for timelapse photography. Think nature programmes where you see flowers growing and blooming speeded up. Once I really master it, I will post one as an example but although I have now worked out how it works, haven't yet had the opportunity to set one up. Watch this space!

What I have managed to do is a Panoramic!

This was taken at Ellesmere, in Shropshire and is actually 4 pictures merged together. I'd read about doing this, but didn't have a clue how to go about it. 

I have the Lightroom Photo editing software on a monthly subscription because you automatically get all the updates, and the new version has a very simple merge tool. There is a photographer on YouTube called Serge Ramelli and he does some brilliant tutorials, I have learned practically all my editing skills from him.

So all I had to do was set up the tripod and take 4 or 5 shots and just move the camera round each time, overlapping slightly and let the pc do the rest! Simples! 

You do all your basic editing after the pictures have been merged, so you don't have to edit each individual picture. Plus you can have some great fun with this!

The final new trick is HDR. Heard so much about this, but not known how to go about it. However, its the same merge control on Lightroom, just choose HDR rather than panoramic. 

I couldn't begin to describe what HDR is and what it does, so here is a link to wikipedia HDR which will explain it properly. 

Anyway, what I had to do was take 3 identical pictures, just changing exposure values and here is my first result.

It brings out all the shadows and adds a lot more definition to a pictures, so I am pleased I worked it out. The building is Moreton Corbet, a ruined Elizabethan manor just outside Shrewsbury, but I will show more photos and give more details of my latest trip in my next blog.

Lessons Learned: Instruction manuals don't bite, but on the off chance they do, there is always You Tube!